Madeline knew that Tabitha would try to take the baby from Van
Helsing, and she wasn't going to allow it. Madeline stood in the distance
between Van Helsing and the witches. Tabitha frowned. "You are making a
mistake, Madeline," she said.
"No," Madeline growled. "You are."
Tabitha rolled her shoulders until they popped, then she held one arm out to face Madeline. She planned to hit Madeline with some magic. But, Madeline used her vampire skills to move out of sight with lightning speed. Tabitha turned to see Madeline right beside her with fangs extended and eyes glowing. Madeline was conjuring up her rampage. "I warned you," she hissed.
Tabitha thrust out her hand, but Madeline caught it and twisted it with her supernatural strength. Tabitha wailed, but Madeline didn't let go until she heard a snap. Tabitha screamed, and Madeline threw her into the wall. The rest of the witches ran towards Madeline planning to defend Tabitha. Madeline used her speed, which was still fast even though she was pregnant, to avoid the attacks of the witches. Madeline did not use her fangs at all, only her strength to throw the witches about and break bones.
Van Helsing stood up and ran over to Katalena. He handed his son over to Katalena and said, "Protect him." Katalena nodded, and Van Helsing ran over to get his revolvers.
Van Helsing picked up his revolvers from the stone floor and aimed them for the witches. He fired the revolvers, and caused his son to cry from the noise, but took out only two of the ten witches. The others were not injured enough to die. Before he could reload his guns, several of the witches were upon him. Thinking quickly, Van Helsing picked up his tojo blades and turned them on. They hummed loudly, and the witches halted. They were smart enough to know the blades would do some serious damage. Van Helsing leapt for them, and sliced one's chest. She dropped to the floor and held her hands to her wound. She didn't survive long because the injury was too severe.
Adam and Victoria were tearing each other apart. Adam was bleeding from his head and shoulder because Victoria had conjured up a gun with silver bullets. The silver caused Adam to heal much slower than a normal wound would heal. Victoria was bleeding from her neck, where Adam had tore her neck open. Blood had stained the front of her dress, but she didn't care. The dress was little to worry about when she had everything to gain and everything to lose. If she lost the fight with Adam, she would die. She knew he'd finish her soul off. But a win would give her the right to take the child of Van Helsing and Anna. She could even kill Madeline with no resistance from Adam. 'I cannot lose this fight,' she thought.
Adam wasn't giving up, and he didn't plan on dying at Victoria's hands either. Victoria knew she would not win the fight in the state she was in. She wasn't fully up to speed with her powers since she'd used a lot of power to awaken her body from death. So, she did the only thing she could do. She used her powers to disappear.
Mae woke up to find Madeline fighting the members of Victoria's coven. Mae quickly rose, she was a little woozy, and used her powers to throw the witches into the walls. But, the walls were thick and strong. The witches did not go through the walls, but the impact against the walls did kill them. Madeline let her rampage ebb, and she turned to smile at Mae. She even walked over and hugged Mae. "I was afraid you'd been hurt."
Mae laughed. "No, just a loss of magic. I used too much all at one time."
Van Helsing walked away from the dead witches and headed back for his son. But, something caught him by the arm. He spun around and saw nothing was there, but something had a hold of his arm. He pulled against whatever was there, but it didn't give. Van Helsing turned on the tojo blade in the hand that was not being held onto. But before he could use it, he was thrown against the wall. The tojo blade clattered away from him.
Victoria appeared, and the whole room gasped. She smirked at them. "You did not expect to see me again, did you?"
Madeline had a knot in her stomach. 'If she's here, then she killed father.' Madeline felt her whole world spin out of control at that moment, and she tried to contain the rampage that was building within her. She did manage to keep it at bay, but she felt her anger rage through her system at every pulse. She wouldn't attack until Victoria made the first move.
Victoria didn't attack Madeline, but picked Van Helsing back up and threw him to the other side of the room. Van Helsing cried out in pain as he hit the hard stone floor. Victoria laughed at Van Helsing's pain, and she picked him up again only to slam him into the floor again. Van Helsing moaned and blood was streaming out of his nose. Victoria picked Van Helsing up again and threw him into the wall again. She took joy in hearing Van Helsing's cries of pain. He was fighting to keep consciousness, but he was losing.
Victoria raised one of her hands. "Don't worry, Van Helsing, I'll take care of the pain," she told him.
Carl, knowing that Victoria planned on killing Van Helsing then, ran as fast as he could for his friend. Victoria created power that formed in small bolts, like lightning, and shot them from her hands. Right as the bolts were about to strike Van Helsing, Carl slid in front of him. He felt the shock from the bolts tear through his system like fire, and he felt very dizzy. Carl fell to the ground and didn't get back up. Victoria cursed Carl for getting in the way of her bolts.
Madeline, seeing Carl lying on the ground, let her rampage loose. Her eyes glowed, and her fangs sharpened. She used her vampire speed to rush over and sink her fangs into Victoria before she could strike at Van Helsing with more bolts. She and Victoria fell to the floor, but Madeline didn't release her teeth from Victoria's neck. Madeline didn't dare drink the blood of such a vile creature, but she did force her fangs in deep to cause Victoria a lot of pain. Victoria used her magic to push Madeline away.
Victoria staggered out of the room to make her escape because she was already wounded and weak for Madeline to finish her off. Madeline was going to follow her, but she couldn't make herself leave Carl crumpled on the floor. She rushed over to Carl and dropped down beside him. "Carl," she said sadly as she caressed his face. His cheek was warm, but Madeline didn't know if he was still alive or not. "Mae, Katalena, please come here."
Both women came and knelt down beside Madeline. "Tell me if Carl is... dead." Tears welled up in Madeline's eyes as she said dead. Katalena handed the baby to Mae then leaned down with her ear right over Carl's face, but she didn't hear any sounds of breathing not even faint sounds. She shut her eyes tight and didn't want to believe that Carl was dead, so she held her fingers against Carl's neck--she'd seen the doctor on the train check people's pulses before. But, Katalena found no pulse. She shook her head, not able to say the words. But, she looked over at Madeline, who leaned down against Carl's shoulder and cried.
Madeline didn't want to believe Carl was gone. He'd been angry with her for so long, but he'd forgiven her when he thought she had drowned. Things had been better since then, and now everything was broken. He had given his life up to save Van Helsing, which Madeline knew was very brave. But, Madeline's heart ached knowing that Carl wouldn't be getting up from the floor. Her sobs started coming in gasps.
Van Helsing regained consciousness, he'd blacked out the last time he was thrown against the wall. He saw Madeline laying down over Carl, who was on the floor. Van Helsing took a moment to realize that Carl wasn't moving. 'No,' he thought. 'It cannot be. Carl's not dead.'
Katalena saw Van Helsing sit up and told him, "Carl's gone." She saw the look of horror upon Van Helsing's face. He struggled but finally got the words to come. "What happened?" Katalena took a deep breath, she was grieving over the loss of Carl as well because he had been a good person. She said, "Victoria was going to kill you, but Carl intercepted the attack before it ever got to you."
Van Helsing felt instant guilt, even if he could not have stopped Carl from jumping in front of the attack. 'Why would you do something like that, Carl?' Van Helsing thought as he put his hands on his face. He rubbed his eyes and tried to keep the reality from soaking in. Carl had been Van Helsing's friend, his only friend for a long time. Van Helsing couldn't let himself believe that Carl was just gone because they had been through too much. Most of all, Van Helsing felt guilty for owing his life to Carl so many times over the past year. Carl had saved him from letting go and dying of life without Anna--he made Van Helsing realized that Anna was alive and waiting to be found, he treated Van Helsing's serpent bite and saved him from dying on the ship, and he jumped in front of Victoria's attack. Van Helsing didn't like that he could never repay Carl for all of that.
Mae saw a pouch of pixie dust in Tabitha's cloak. She gave the baby back to Katalena to hold, and she got up and snatched the dust from Tabitha's dead body. She had an idea. 'What if we can bring Carl back by magic? I think I could get it to work.' She ran over to Madeline and said, "I have an idea."
Madeline looked up at Mae with red, bloodshot eyes. She saw Mae had a pouch of pixie dust in her hand, and Madeline sat up. "What is your idea?"
"We use this to bring Carl back." Mae suggested.
Madeline sighed. "That pixie dust can't solve anything, Mae. Anna wasn't brought back by pixie dust."
"No," Mae replied, "But, Anna had been departed from the world for some time. Carl has not."
Madeline's mind told her it was a crazy idea, but her heart didn't want to let go of Carl yet. So, she decided it was worth a try. Mae grabbed a handful of pixie dust and chanted for a moment until she had completed her incantation. Then, she blew the dust out of her hand. All eyes watched the dust land, but the dust had no effect. Mae shook her head. "No, it should have worked," she cried out.
Madeline closed her eyes and brought her hands up to her face. Fresh tears spilled out of her eyes. Through sobs she said, "I would give up my eternal life if Carl would wake up."
Mae was about to comfort Madeline when the pixie dust she'd blown in the air lifted up and encircled Madeline. Madeline looked up and felt a pain inside of her head. It felt like her head was splitting in two, and she grabbed her hair and screamed. Her heart raced, and she felt very ill. A piece of her was being torn away, but she finally realized what was going on. The pixie dust was granting her wish and freeing her of her vampire life in return for Carl to live.
After several minutes, the headache was gone. But, Madeline was lightheaded. She fell over against Mae, and Mae laid her on the cool stone floor. She felt of Madeline's head. "She's burning up," she told Katalena.
Katalena was about to go check on Madeline when she saw Carl twitch. She looked again and saw Carl was breathing. "Mae, Madeline did it. I don't understand how, but she did." Mae stared down and saw Carl was starting wake up. Carl rolled over and sat up. He moaned with pain from being hit with Victoria's bolts, and he rubbed his eyes. Katalena and Mae just stared at each other then looked over at Van Helsing, who was staring over at Carl in confusion.
Carl looked over and saw Madeline was on the floor, and he reached over to her. Mae touched his shoulder. "She saved you," she told him.
"What?" Carl asked not understanding.
"Victoria's bolts killed you." Mae told him. "I tried to use pixie dust that Tabitha had to bring you back, but it failed."
"Then, Madeline said she would give up her eternal life if you would wake up." Katalena told Carl. "And, the pixie dust reacted to that."
Carl's eyes were very wide. "She's not dead, is she?"
"No." Mae replied. "But, I don't believe she's undead either."
Carl saw Madeline's complexion had changed. She had more color to her skin, and he felt his heart skip. 'Then, we can actually be together,' he thought. He brushed her cheek and found it was too warm. "She's feverish," he said. He looked at Mae. "That isn't good. She needs medicine."
Adam came rushing in and saw Madeline on the ground. He had felt the connection between his daughter and him severe. He thought Victoria had killed Madeline, but he saw that something had turned her human. He walked over and lifted his daughter up into his arms. He stroked her curly hair, and he silently willed her awake. Her green eyes opened and looked up at her father. "Daddy," she asked. She saw his eyes tear up. "What's wrong?" Madeline asked.
Adam let her out of his embrace. He touched her cheek and told her, "You've broken free of the cursed life that you hated so much." Tears fell down his cheeks. "But, we cannot be together anymore. You are human now, and I don't want to see you fade away. I couldn't bear that kind of pain."
Madeline felt a pain in her heart to see her father cry. "I'm sorry," she told him.
He shook his head. He sensed what had happened in the room, and he knew that Madeline had saved Carl. "No. Don't be sorry, Madeline. You had noble cause. Besides, why should I have what I want when I've caused so much pain here?" Adam asked as he looked up to Van Helsing and Anna.
Van Helsing could feel the pain inside of Adam, and he felt sorry for him. He was losing Madeline, the one thing Adam had left in the world that he loved. He'd lost his love for Madeline, and now he was losing Madeline to a new life. Adam knew that Van Helsing could sense his pain, but he knew that didn't make up for what he'd done.
For the first time in her life, Madeline could not feel her father's emotions. She knew that she was truly human, and it made her really sad to know she'd never have a bond with her father. She had never even considered how being human would affect her father, she'd just thought about what would make her happy. Now, she was guilty for not thinking of how her father would feel. She loved him so much, and she touched his cheek. He used his skills to let her know he would be all right, but he didn't tell her how long it would take before he was okay. Adam just wanted Madeline to know enough to keep her happy, she deserved to be happy since she never liked being a vampire anyway. "I love you, Madeline." Adam told her.
Madeline hugged her father and said, "And, I love you."
A/N (I was about to cry while I wrote this chapter.)
"No," Madeline growled. "You are."
Tabitha rolled her shoulders until they popped, then she held one arm out to face Madeline. She planned to hit Madeline with some magic. But, Madeline used her vampire skills to move out of sight with lightning speed. Tabitha turned to see Madeline right beside her with fangs extended and eyes glowing. Madeline was conjuring up her rampage. "I warned you," she hissed.
Tabitha thrust out her hand, but Madeline caught it and twisted it with her supernatural strength. Tabitha wailed, but Madeline didn't let go until she heard a snap. Tabitha screamed, and Madeline threw her into the wall. The rest of the witches ran towards Madeline planning to defend Tabitha. Madeline used her speed, which was still fast even though she was pregnant, to avoid the attacks of the witches. Madeline did not use her fangs at all, only her strength to throw the witches about and break bones.
Van Helsing stood up and ran over to Katalena. He handed his son over to Katalena and said, "Protect him." Katalena nodded, and Van Helsing ran over to get his revolvers.
Van Helsing picked up his revolvers from the stone floor and aimed them for the witches. He fired the revolvers, and caused his son to cry from the noise, but took out only two of the ten witches. The others were not injured enough to die. Before he could reload his guns, several of the witches were upon him. Thinking quickly, Van Helsing picked up his tojo blades and turned them on. They hummed loudly, and the witches halted. They were smart enough to know the blades would do some serious damage. Van Helsing leapt for them, and sliced one's chest. She dropped to the floor and held her hands to her wound. She didn't survive long because the injury was too severe.
Adam and Victoria were tearing each other apart. Adam was bleeding from his head and shoulder because Victoria had conjured up a gun with silver bullets. The silver caused Adam to heal much slower than a normal wound would heal. Victoria was bleeding from her neck, where Adam had tore her neck open. Blood had stained the front of her dress, but she didn't care. The dress was little to worry about when she had everything to gain and everything to lose. If she lost the fight with Adam, she would die. She knew he'd finish her soul off. But a win would give her the right to take the child of Van Helsing and Anna. She could even kill Madeline with no resistance from Adam. 'I cannot lose this fight,' she thought.
Adam wasn't giving up, and he didn't plan on dying at Victoria's hands either. Victoria knew she would not win the fight in the state she was in. She wasn't fully up to speed with her powers since she'd used a lot of power to awaken her body from death. So, she did the only thing she could do. She used her powers to disappear.
Mae woke up to find Madeline fighting the members of Victoria's coven. Mae quickly rose, she was a little woozy, and used her powers to throw the witches into the walls. But, the walls were thick and strong. The witches did not go through the walls, but the impact against the walls did kill them. Madeline let her rampage ebb, and she turned to smile at Mae. She even walked over and hugged Mae. "I was afraid you'd been hurt."
Mae laughed. "No, just a loss of magic. I used too much all at one time."
Van Helsing walked away from the dead witches and headed back for his son. But, something caught him by the arm. He spun around and saw nothing was there, but something had a hold of his arm. He pulled against whatever was there, but it didn't give. Van Helsing turned on the tojo blade in the hand that was not being held onto. But before he could use it, he was thrown against the wall. The tojo blade clattered away from him.
Victoria appeared, and the whole room gasped. She smirked at them. "You did not expect to see me again, did you?"
Madeline had a knot in her stomach. 'If she's here, then she killed father.' Madeline felt her whole world spin out of control at that moment, and she tried to contain the rampage that was building within her. She did manage to keep it at bay, but she felt her anger rage through her system at every pulse. She wouldn't attack until Victoria made the first move.
Victoria didn't attack Madeline, but picked Van Helsing back up and threw him to the other side of the room. Van Helsing cried out in pain as he hit the hard stone floor. Victoria laughed at Van Helsing's pain, and she picked him up again only to slam him into the floor again. Van Helsing moaned and blood was streaming out of his nose. Victoria picked Van Helsing up again and threw him into the wall again. She took joy in hearing Van Helsing's cries of pain. He was fighting to keep consciousness, but he was losing.
Victoria raised one of her hands. "Don't worry, Van Helsing, I'll take care of the pain," she told him.
Carl, knowing that Victoria planned on killing Van Helsing then, ran as fast as he could for his friend. Victoria created power that formed in small bolts, like lightning, and shot them from her hands. Right as the bolts were about to strike Van Helsing, Carl slid in front of him. He felt the shock from the bolts tear through his system like fire, and he felt very dizzy. Carl fell to the ground and didn't get back up. Victoria cursed Carl for getting in the way of her bolts.
Madeline, seeing Carl lying on the ground, let her rampage loose. Her eyes glowed, and her fangs sharpened. She used her vampire speed to rush over and sink her fangs into Victoria before she could strike at Van Helsing with more bolts. She and Victoria fell to the floor, but Madeline didn't release her teeth from Victoria's neck. Madeline didn't dare drink the blood of such a vile creature, but she did force her fangs in deep to cause Victoria a lot of pain. Victoria used her magic to push Madeline away.
Victoria staggered out of the room to make her escape because she was already wounded and weak for Madeline to finish her off. Madeline was going to follow her, but she couldn't make herself leave Carl crumpled on the floor. She rushed over to Carl and dropped down beside him. "Carl," she said sadly as she caressed his face. His cheek was warm, but Madeline didn't know if he was still alive or not. "Mae, Katalena, please come here."
Both women came and knelt down beside Madeline. "Tell me if Carl is... dead." Tears welled up in Madeline's eyes as she said dead. Katalena handed the baby to Mae then leaned down with her ear right over Carl's face, but she didn't hear any sounds of breathing not even faint sounds. She shut her eyes tight and didn't want to believe that Carl was dead, so she held her fingers against Carl's neck--she'd seen the doctor on the train check people's pulses before. But, Katalena found no pulse. She shook her head, not able to say the words. But, she looked over at Madeline, who leaned down against Carl's shoulder and cried.
Madeline didn't want to believe Carl was gone. He'd been angry with her for so long, but he'd forgiven her when he thought she had drowned. Things had been better since then, and now everything was broken. He had given his life up to save Van Helsing, which Madeline knew was very brave. But, Madeline's heart ached knowing that Carl wouldn't be getting up from the floor. Her sobs started coming in gasps.
Van Helsing regained consciousness, he'd blacked out the last time he was thrown against the wall. He saw Madeline laying down over Carl, who was on the floor. Van Helsing took a moment to realize that Carl wasn't moving. 'No,' he thought. 'It cannot be. Carl's not dead.'
Katalena saw Van Helsing sit up and told him, "Carl's gone." She saw the look of horror upon Van Helsing's face. He struggled but finally got the words to come. "What happened?" Katalena took a deep breath, she was grieving over the loss of Carl as well because he had been a good person. She said, "Victoria was going to kill you, but Carl intercepted the attack before it ever got to you."
Van Helsing felt instant guilt, even if he could not have stopped Carl from jumping in front of the attack. 'Why would you do something like that, Carl?' Van Helsing thought as he put his hands on his face. He rubbed his eyes and tried to keep the reality from soaking in. Carl had been Van Helsing's friend, his only friend for a long time. Van Helsing couldn't let himself believe that Carl was just gone because they had been through too much. Most of all, Van Helsing felt guilty for owing his life to Carl so many times over the past year. Carl had saved him from letting go and dying of life without Anna--he made Van Helsing realized that Anna was alive and waiting to be found, he treated Van Helsing's serpent bite and saved him from dying on the ship, and he jumped in front of Victoria's attack. Van Helsing didn't like that he could never repay Carl for all of that.
Mae saw a pouch of pixie dust in Tabitha's cloak. She gave the baby back to Katalena to hold, and she got up and snatched the dust from Tabitha's dead body. She had an idea. 'What if we can bring Carl back by magic? I think I could get it to work.' She ran over to Madeline and said, "I have an idea."
Madeline looked up at Mae with red, bloodshot eyes. She saw Mae had a pouch of pixie dust in her hand, and Madeline sat up. "What is your idea?"
"We use this to bring Carl back." Mae suggested.
Madeline sighed. "That pixie dust can't solve anything, Mae. Anna wasn't brought back by pixie dust."
"No," Mae replied, "But, Anna had been departed from the world for some time. Carl has not."
Madeline's mind told her it was a crazy idea, but her heart didn't want to let go of Carl yet. So, she decided it was worth a try. Mae grabbed a handful of pixie dust and chanted for a moment until she had completed her incantation. Then, she blew the dust out of her hand. All eyes watched the dust land, but the dust had no effect. Mae shook her head. "No, it should have worked," she cried out.
Madeline closed her eyes and brought her hands up to her face. Fresh tears spilled out of her eyes. Through sobs she said, "I would give up my eternal life if Carl would wake up."
Mae was about to comfort Madeline when the pixie dust she'd blown in the air lifted up and encircled Madeline. Madeline looked up and felt a pain inside of her head. It felt like her head was splitting in two, and she grabbed her hair and screamed. Her heart raced, and she felt very ill. A piece of her was being torn away, but she finally realized what was going on. The pixie dust was granting her wish and freeing her of her vampire life in return for Carl to live.
After several minutes, the headache was gone. But, Madeline was lightheaded. She fell over against Mae, and Mae laid her on the cool stone floor. She felt of Madeline's head. "She's burning up," she told Katalena.
Katalena was about to go check on Madeline when she saw Carl twitch. She looked again and saw Carl was breathing. "Mae, Madeline did it. I don't understand how, but she did." Mae stared down and saw Carl was starting wake up. Carl rolled over and sat up. He moaned with pain from being hit with Victoria's bolts, and he rubbed his eyes. Katalena and Mae just stared at each other then looked over at Van Helsing, who was staring over at Carl in confusion.
Carl looked over and saw Madeline was on the floor, and he reached over to her. Mae touched his shoulder. "She saved you," she told him.
"What?" Carl asked not understanding.
"Victoria's bolts killed you." Mae told him. "I tried to use pixie dust that Tabitha had to bring you back, but it failed."
"Then, Madeline said she would give up her eternal life if you would wake up." Katalena told Carl. "And, the pixie dust reacted to that."
Carl's eyes were very wide. "She's not dead, is she?"
"No." Mae replied. "But, I don't believe she's undead either."
Carl saw Madeline's complexion had changed. She had more color to her skin, and he felt his heart skip. 'Then, we can actually be together,' he thought. He brushed her cheek and found it was too warm. "She's feverish," he said. He looked at Mae. "That isn't good. She needs medicine."
Adam came rushing in and saw Madeline on the ground. He had felt the connection between his daughter and him severe. He thought Victoria had killed Madeline, but he saw that something had turned her human. He walked over and lifted his daughter up into his arms. He stroked her curly hair, and he silently willed her awake. Her green eyes opened and looked up at her father. "Daddy," she asked. She saw his eyes tear up. "What's wrong?" Madeline asked.
Adam let her out of his embrace. He touched her cheek and told her, "You've broken free of the cursed life that you hated so much." Tears fell down his cheeks. "But, we cannot be together anymore. You are human now, and I don't want to see you fade away. I couldn't bear that kind of pain."
Madeline felt a pain in her heart to see her father cry. "I'm sorry," she told him.
He shook his head. He sensed what had happened in the room, and he knew that Madeline had saved Carl. "No. Don't be sorry, Madeline. You had noble cause. Besides, why should I have what I want when I've caused so much pain here?" Adam asked as he looked up to Van Helsing and Anna.
Van Helsing could feel the pain inside of Adam, and he felt sorry for him. He was losing Madeline, the one thing Adam had left in the world that he loved. He'd lost his love for Madeline, and now he was losing Madeline to a new life. Adam knew that Van Helsing could sense his pain, but he knew that didn't make up for what he'd done.
For the first time in her life, Madeline could not feel her father's emotions. She knew that she was truly human, and it made her really sad to know she'd never have a bond with her father. She had never even considered how being human would affect her father, she'd just thought about what would make her happy. Now, she was guilty for not thinking of how her father would feel. She loved him so much, and she touched his cheek. He used his skills to let her know he would be all right, but he didn't tell her how long it would take before he was okay. Adam just wanted Madeline to know enough to keep her happy, she deserved to be happy since she never liked being a vampire anyway. "I love you, Madeline." Adam told her.
Madeline hugged her father and said, "And, I love you."
A/N (I was about to cry while I wrote this chapter.)